Into the Black Forest
by Uozumi
Summary: After beaming back from a planet based in fables and fairytales, the way team loses a red shirt on the platform and Spock soon succumbs to a deep sleep.


**Fandom** _Star Trek TOS_  
**Character(s)/Pairing(s)** ensemble cast; Spock/McCoy  
**Genre** Fantasy/Horror/Romance/Slash  
**Rating** PG-13  
**Word Count** 4281  
**Disclaimer** Star Trek c. Paramount, CBS, NBC, Roddenberry  
**Summary** After beaming back from a planet based in fables and fairytales, the way team loses a red shirt on the platform and Spock soon succumbs to a deep sleep.  
**Warning(s)** violence, brief mutilation, death  
**Notes** This stemmed from a conversation between me and a friend about TOS and Sleeping Beauty. She was like, "Write it! Write it!" and the more I thought about the concept, the more I realized I should write it.

_**In the Black Forest**_

The beam down location was forested with large trees of a very dark wood at night. A sign hanging on one rusted nail proclaimed the area Schwarzwald. Uhura moved instinctively closer to her companions. Kirk surveyed the beam down area and then looked to Spock. "How much farther to the signal?"

Spock consulted the device in his hands. "Two kilometers in that," he pointed, "direction, Captain."

Kirk led his small group, which included two security officers in the direction Spock indicated. After a few paces, they came to a path through the forest. Continuing down the path, they soon came to an intersection marked by a weathered pole with several woodened signs poorly attached to it. Kirk gave a hand gesture to indicate to security to fan out and keep an eye on the much more open area at the intersection and then looked at the words across the signs before him. Uhura came to stand by his side, looking up at the signs as well. "It's an old language," she noted. "An old version of German." She ran her tongue along her teeth and read the words to herself silently.

Kirk looked to Spock. "Does this path we are on lead to the location of the transmission?"

Spock checked the device in his hands. "So far it appears to be leading directly to the location."

Kirk nodded. "Uhura?"

"This sign pointing in that direction reads 'Höchsten Turm,' or 'Highest Tower,'" she reported. "We came from the direction of 'Schloss von Dornen' or 'Castle of Thorns.'"

Kirk looked ahead but all he could see was more of the black forest around them. "I don't suppose the other road leads to a bears' cottage or grandmother's house?" His lips quirked into a smirk.

Uhura looked at the other two signs on the pole. "No, but they do lead to a Dwarves' Mine," she pointed to her left, "or a Gingerbread House." Uhura pointed to her right. Her eyebrows knitted a little. "Like a children's book of fables."

"I suppose if Adonis could exist on a planet and other planets emulate extinct Earth cultures, a fable or fairy tale planet is not too far fetched," Kirk commented. He was about to give the signal to carry on to the highest tower when the security team called out to him.

"Captain," Ensign Ovasi called out and walked over, "Ensign Brahms and I found two men spying on us." Ensign Brahms urged two men forward. The men were of about the same height and build with similar hooked noses. They looked not much younger than Kirk.

"I am Wilhelm Karl," the younger man stated, "and this is my brother Jacob. We are travelers." He looked at Kirk's uniform closely. "You must be part of Starfleet command."

"I am," Kirk answered. "What were you doing when my men found you?" He motioned for Ovasi and Brahms to stand down so the travelers were more comfortable and thusly more likely to talk.

Jacob's eyes studied Spock intently. Wilhelm looked at Kirk. "We were trying to figure out who you really were. It's said you can meet many a bandit on the roads to Hessen. My brother and I arrived here not long ago. We're collecting the history of the places we visit."

Spock glanced at Jacob. He could hear the question in Jacob's eyes but did not acknowledge it. His ears twitched briefly as though they too knew the younger male wished to know how real the ears were.

"I see." Kirk nodded.

Jacob blinked and looked to Kirk. "I supposed you're here to look into the distress signal?" He opened up a leather bound journal and began making some notes. "It's what drew us here as well. Much of this forest is abandoned."

"What do you expect to find at this high tower?" Kirk asked.

Wilhelm considered the question. "We've been in Hanau for a week now, but I'm not sure. It could be anything." He folded his arms. "We would like to continue on with your help, if it's not against regulations?"

Kirk agreed and the group continued together. Soon they came to a clearing where a large stone tower stood erect without any castle attached. At the top was a pointed roof. A long braided rope hung from the one window of the entire tower weather beaten and tangled. Ensign Ovasi reached down to touch the ribbon tied to the end of the rope lying in a mud puddle.

"I would not touch it, Ensign," Spock spoke. The half Vulcan seemed to be keeping a purposeful distance between himself and the rope. "It is covered in dead nits." Spock then turned to Kirk and confirmed that the signal indeed originated from the top of the tower.

"It's hair," Uhura observed. "It's beautifully braided. I'm sure it was impressive when it was still well kept." It was somewhat hard to heed Spock's warning about touching it, but she knew to trust the first officer and reign in her impulses.

Jacob was sketching something into his journal. Wilhelm and Kirk began to circle the tower. Spock took readings on their surroundings while the ensign secured the area. Jacob glanced at Uhura and shut his journal, keeping his place with his thumb. "Are there lots of women in Starfleet?"

Uhura considered the question. "There are many women in Starfleet and many on our ship."

As she answered Jacob's curious but not overly probing questions, Kirk reached out and cautiously touched the stone of the tower. "There must be a way into the tower besides that hair." He ran his fingers along the stones.

"There are witches around," Wilhelm commented. "There might be a ritual to gain entrance." He started to look around at objects cast about the dirt by the tower. "Here," he reached down and picked up a stick about fifteen inches long with a circumference of two inches at the thicker end. "This should suffice." He looked at Kirk. "You should step back, Captain Kirk, this might rebound."

Kirk obeyed, almost stepping back into Spock who had arrived out of curiosity to watch the proceedings. Wilhelm tapped the stick along the bricks in the outline of a door. Then he spoke a very ancient Germanic sounding word and the stone glowed before disappearing to show a door. "I don't know how much time we have, so I better keep hold of this." He tucked the stick into his pocket.

Kirk looked to Spock who was watching Wilhelm closely now. Then Kirk ventured in after the historian. "How did you know it was a wand?"

"Any stick of the right dimensions can be a wand." Wilhelm reached out and took a torch down from its holder. He lit the oilcloth.

Kirk looked around. There was nothing but a spiral staircase contained within the tower. He could almost see all the way to the top. "It looks like some sort of trap door entrance."

"I would let you go first, Captain Kirk, but I do not want you to encounter something you cannot stop without a wand," Wilhelm answered. The three began to ascend the spiral staircase after Kirk checked in with Uhura to let those outside know their plans. The staircase took them up three stories. At the top, Wilhelm poked his stick about the ceiling, looking for the door.

"It's almost like Rapunzel," Kirk commented. "Except, that tower didn't have stairs."

"Rapunzel, Captain?" Spock asked. His eyes watched Wilhelm's stick, fascinated by the seeming illogic of finding a door in such a manner. The ceiling looked impenetrable.

"It's the story of a girl who's locked up in a tower without any stairs or doors. The only way to get up to her is to climb her hair," Kirk explained.

Spock looked at Kirk and raised an eyebrow. "The human hair cannot take such weight."

Before Kirk could point out that fables were not exactly about logic but the message, Wilhelm found the door, pushing up with both his hands. Dust rained down upon the three males but they pushed forward. The hole was just big enough for them to squeeze through. They entered an attic space. The room was about six feet high at the highest point of the cylindrical ceiling and ran the circumference of the tower. The room was humble. There was a spinning wheel in one corner along with a hamper where clothes were piled. Underneath the window was a set of grooves within the stone to create places to brace the body while pulling great weight up the side of the tower. From the windowsill, the braid traveled deeper into the room. It led to a small bed with a curtain closed around it built into the wall.

Spock was last to enter the room, moving towards the spinning wheel since Wilhelm and Kirk were taking up the space towards the bed. The room smelled vile and musty. He did his best to ignore the rotted flesh smell that clung to everything in the room. Vulcans were unaccustomed to eating meat or most meat products and exposure to such smells created an instinctive nauseous feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was stronger than his reaction to prepared earthen meals he encountered when eating in the officer's mess on the Enterprise. Spock knew he could get through it. He was a soldier and a well controlled Vulcan after all.

"I'm almost afraid to see what's behind the curtain," Wilhelm spoke. If he noticed Spock's distance, he did not comment.

"It smells of death," Kirk commented and cast his eyes around for signs of the origin of the transmissions. He picked up an odd-looking device near the windowsill.

"I do want to document the history of this place," Wilhelm commented and then took a deep breath through his mouth, "so…" He thrust the curtain back, raising a cloud of dust and sending a rather pungent smell of death into the room. Kirk covered his mouth and nose with his hand. Spock almost lost his balance when the aroma assaulted his senses. His hand swung out to compensate, his palm scraping against the nail of the spinning wheel in the process.

Kirk gazed upon the rotted corpse and then looked away. Wilhelm quickly closed the curtain again. Kirk held up the device in his free hand and motioned to leave the tower. The three quickly hurried back down the stairs. Wilhelm was careful to place the torch in a provided bucket of rainwater near the entrance and placed the torch back upon its holder. Once the three were out of the tower, the opening closed behind them.

Wilhelm cast the stick to the ground and looked at Kirk and Spock. "I noticed you recovered something from the room."

"Yes." Kirk examined the device. "It was out of place in the room. We should be able to analyze the origins on our ship." He looked up at the tower from the outside, contemplating the room of death. "I didn't mean to take you from your studies."

"There wasn't much to glean in that room," Wilhelm answered. He looked to Spock before his gaze returned to the captain. "My brother and I are on our way to Bergwerk der Zwerge. We want to see if we can leave Schwarzwald and camp somewhere." He reached out and shook Kirk's hand. "Good luck figuring out the recording."

"I could let you know what it says for your historical records," Kirk offered.

Wilhelm shook his head. "The locals should know the story. Thank you anyway." Wilhelm collected Jacob and the brothers continued along the way they came to back track to the intersection. Kirk called the landing party back together and after a quick assessment, the group beamed back up to the ship.

When the hum of the transporter subsided, an audible thud followed by a tumbling noise greeted the away part. All eyes turned to Ensign Brahms limp body on the floor of the transport room. Instantly, Kyle hit the medical emergency button and McCoy hurried through the transport room door moments later. He batted those gathered around the body away and began checking vitals. After a moment, his lips drew into a deep frown. "He's dead, Jim." McCoy stood up and let the nurses that followed him into the transport room take care of the body.

"All of you," McCoy indicated the away party members, "are going straight to Sickbay." The procession followed Ensign Brahms body out of the transporter room and stopped in the main room of Sickbay while the corpse continued to the morgue room. McCoy began to situate them in various biobeds. Spock was slow to move.

"Spock, you can't just – " McCoy stopped mid chastisement. The Vulcan had a green flush to his body and seemed to be standing just to the right of Kirk as though that was all he could manage to do. Spock's eyes drooped a bit, his hands clasped behind him, hiding the mysterious cut from the spindle that had not started its accelerated healing process yet.

Kirk looked over at his first officer and frowned as well. He reached out to steady Spock.

"Help me get him to the biobed, Jim," McCoy said and moved to Spock's other side. Their friend was quickly becoming dead weight. Just as they reached the biobed, Spock slumped over onto McCoy. They managed to lift and roll Spock onto the bed and then McCoy helped guide the bed into a horizontal position before the Vulcan could slip off. McCoy looked at the monitor, assessing the readouts. "He's alive. Just…asleep."

Kirk looked at Spock and then McCoy. "I didn't know Vulcans slept."

"Neither did I," McCoy started to examine the cut on Spock's hand. He reached over, took the tweezers from his kit, and poked about the wound until he removed something. "It's not a wood splinter," McCoy commented and placed the offending splinter into a test tube for further analysis. Then he looked to Kirk. "What did you do down there?"

"It was a country, maybe a planet, governed by fables," Kirk replied, "but according to some historians traveling it, everything they had come across so far was abandoned or dead."

McCoy handed the test tube off to a nurse nearby. "Then maybe it's some sort of curse."

Kirk looked at Spock sleeping on the biobed. "So we should be trying to figure out Spock's true love so they can kiss him?"

"Aristotle is long dead, Jim." McCoy ushered his friend towards an empty biobed. "I'm going to check all of you before anyone else falls over asleep or dead."

Uhura, Kirk, and the ensign were all cleared from Sickbay, but McCoy wanted them to wait until the next Alpha shift to return to duty. Spock continued to sleep. It was not any sort of trance but a complete, deep sleep that cycled in and out of REM. M'Benga assured the doctor that Vulcans did indeed sleep when it was necessary.

"I don't think," he told McCoy as the older doctor analyzed the splinter and other samples from Spock, "that he is sleeping because it is necessary." M'Benga folded his arms. "He doesn't have the neuro signature of a narcoleptic as a Vulcan or human either."

McCoy brushed the mental image of narcoleptic Vulcans away for a time when he could appreciate the amusement. "I'm scheduled to beam down to the planet with Jim during Delta shift. I need to take some plant samples to figure out what killed Ensign Brahms too." He placed the extracted DNA from the splinter into the centrifuge. Within a few minutes, the DNA extraction was complete. After computer analysis, McCoy blinked. "It's some sort of alien flax."

"Flax?" M'Benga looked at the viewscreen curiously. "That's been extinct on Earth since the third world war."

McCoy double-checked his tests and indeed the splinter found in Spock's wound was some sort of flax that generated on the planet they orbited currently. The Sickbay was quiet, the lights dimmed to simulate a night phase. McCoy walked over to the only patient in the room and looked down at Spock. He checked the vitals and then made a face. "Of all the stupid…" Why did his brain decide to bring up Kirk's comment from earlier? This was a sickbay on a starship, not some cabin in the woods.

It was not as though McCoy had not considered kissing the Vulcan before, it just did not seem like something he should do especially after everything he had ever said to the Vulcan. He liked women and always had. He watched some of his peers in Starfleet swing around, but McCoy had always stayed planted firmly in what seemed like a zero on what was now called the Kinsey continuum since sexuality could move about the scale as a person aged and developed. Yet, McCoy wasn't sure it counted as shift on the continuum if the only male that ever made that assessment questionable was some half Vulcan who probably found McCoy to be unpleasant or some equal throw away term. Even McCoy could almost admit to himself that at first he had tried sometimes subconsciously and sometimes consciously to make things bad between them. Change was not something he welcomed easily.

McCoy finished analyzing the data he received from the readouts and sighed. "Even asleep, you live to infuriate me, don't you?"

There was only unwelcomed silence in response.

Delta shift arrived and Kirk, McCoy, and Sulu beamed down to the planet's surface. They materialized in the same spot the first away team materialized almost an entire planetary rotation and a half-length ago. It was now daylight in Schwarzwald instead of night.

Kirk let McCoy instruct Sulu on what plants to look for in regards to the contents in Ensign Brahms' stomach contents. Once that was complete, Kirk and McCoy continued on to the tower.

"We're going to need the ventilation masks," Kirk said and got out his from around his utility belt. "There's a lot of dust up there and a dead body."

McCoy also put on his ventilation mask. He gave the braid a wide berth as the pair made their way to the tower.

"I need a stick that looks like a wand," Kirk said. He hoped Uhura was right. She had instructed him on pronunciation of the spell needed to get into the tower again.

"A wand?"

"Like a wizard."

After a few moments, McCoy produced a stick of about thirteen inches with one end thick and the other end very pointy and thin. Kirk took it, figuring it looked like it fit the "right dimensions" requirement. "Stand back, Bones." He was not sure it was going to work.

McCoy stayed back and Kirk went about trying to recreate Wilhelm's incantation. After two tries, the door reappeared. Kirk kept hold of the wand and hoped he would not have to use it for anything else. They secured the torch and continued up to the room at the top of the tower. The trap door was left open and the two men squeezed through it into the attic space.

McCoy strapped on his gloves and began to search out the source of the cut on Spock's hand. The sharp object was made from something that was once an animal. It also needed flax beside or attached. He found the spindle easily and considered the object. He needed the bone needle and a sample of the flax still attached to it. He hesitated to break the spindle. It looked old but sturdy as though with a bit of cleaning it could begin to produce thread. Carefully, McCoy broke off the portion that contained the flax and needle, placing it in a special bag he brought for the collection. He also surveyed the area Kirk told him Spock had been in looking for anything else the Vulcan might have touched or inhaled during the first beam down.

Once everything was bagged, the pair met back up with Sulu who was almost finished collecting various plant samples, some for McCoy and others for his own interests. Sulu looked at Kirk once he finished with the plants around the tower. "Captain, I – " before he could finish the statement a shrill shriek echoed nearby.

Instantly, Kirk and Sulu had their phasers drawn, McCoy following slower. The three started for the source of the shriek, moving quickly through the tall black trees. They could hear it before they saw it. Snorting, grunting, and tearing. The smell of blood and death met their noses and then they saw it. A large gray wolf was busy devouring the intestines of young girl. Her red riding cloak covered most of her, but some of her auburn hair poked out in small ringlets.

McCoy shot the wolf, his phaser stunning the animal before he even realized he had pulled the trigger. He moved forward and looked down at the girl. There was nothing any of them could do. The wolf had made fast work of her, severing her neck before devouring most of her abdomen. He stared at the girl's face a long moment before kneeling in the blood and guts to turn her eyelids downward. Kirk placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"We can't do anything, Bones." Kirk knew McCoy was aware of that fact, but it warranted saying. He knew what was going through the mind of one of his closest friends.

"I know." McCoy stood and looked at the wolf. The creature was still alive. He wanted to kill it, but what good would that do now? The child was dead and perhaps with the red riding hooded cloak around her body, it was meant to be that way in this dying land.

Sulu was not certain what made the doctor spring into action quite like that, but he kept his eyes open for other wildlife or people that might be heading their way. He could hear the roar of a bear not too far off. "Captain…"

Kirk nodded. "Let's head back to the ship." The team gathered yards from the wolf and child and then beamed back to the ship with their specimens.

McCoy worked with the help of Chapel to analyze the qualities of the bone needle, the flax, and dust samples collected from the tower's upmost room. Sulu was working on the plant analysis in another lab. "The dust," McCoy analyzed, "was on everything and contained some toxins." He looked at Chapel and began to instruct her on what procedures they would use to help flush the toxins from Spock's body.

It was another shift with the lights dimmed to simulate night in Sickbay. McCoy began to administer the final dosage of the anti-toxins to Spock. Since the death of the girl in the forest, McCoy had been thinking of his daughter. There was a holograph of Joanna on his desk in his office of her all grown up from a few years ago, her long auburn hair spilling out from under her graduation cap. He had read and told her so many of these fairytales and fables for the first several years of her life. Many of the stories he told her centered around the idea that a kiss can save lives. Perhaps it was an oversimplified concept of CPR, especially since in some versions of Snow White it was about dislodging a piece of apple from the throat, but all of the planets the Enterprise visited always had a way of sucking the crew into obeying their rules while in orbit.

So, there had a been a little red riding hood and a wolf, McCoy had seen Rapunzel dead atop her tower, and there were signs pointing to Sleeping Beauty's castle, Snow White's dwarves' mine, and the evil witch's gingerbread house. They were just missing a red rose bush, a white rose bush, and a singing horse's head.

McCoy finished his work and looked down at Spock. The Vulcan looked more normal, yet he was still sleeping. McCoy knew from his mother that in the original Sleeping Beauty, the removal of a splinter of flax from the woman's finger caused her to wake. Yet, the wound was almost completely healed and Spock still had not awoken. They were still orbiting the planet, and that meant perhaps the laws of reality of the planet could still reach the Enterprise. It would not be the first time being in orbit did not absolve Sickbay from such things.

It was illogical and silly, but McCoy figured it was worth a shot. He leaned down and pressed a firm yet brief closed-mouth kiss to the Vulcan's lips. He then hesitated, trying to remember what the hell a Vulcan version of a kiss would be. Slowly he pressed the pads of his index and middle finger to the pads of Spock's index and middle finger for about as long as the kiss had lasted. There. That was done and the Vulcan was clearly still asleep.

Flustered and feeling absolutely ridiculous, McCoy left the room for his office. Half of a rubber ball secured to the doorframe prevented the door from sliding completely closed. It was a practice McCoy started when he realized he could not hear the noises in his sickbay with the door completely shut.

Within the darkened Sickbay, Spock's fingers twitched. Soon his ears moved minutely and his nostrils flared. His eyes opened but for a moment, his eyes did not seem focused or comprehending of his location. Then he blinked and looked around with only his eyes.

The anti-toxin drip McCoy put Spock on was still almost completely full.

**The End**


End file.
